Stretching for the New Year

Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.

– Jeremy Bentham

I’m brushing away the cobwebs that settled on my photographic efforts during 2009 – stretching, as it were. I accomplished some fun stuff, shot some events that I hadn’t before, hung my work in a gallery for the first time, and received some very nice and generous compliments about my work.

Hopefully 2010 will be a little better…..

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Now I know that sounds a little – presumptuous, but I’ve always found it important to set goals for myself. I’m getting better about setting attainable goals, instead of stars I now typically aim for the moon (I said better, not cured). For 2010 I’ve got a list of XX goals I hope to make headway on. Here they are:

1. Complete the “Photo-a-Day” self challenge – based on Mike Johnston’s post The Leica as Teacher on his Online Photographer website. (Re-reading Mike’s post I’ve actually found that my Photo-a-Day is a little off base, but I’ll get to that another time).
   

2. Host a “Creativity Workshop” once a month with my DPWM group – I organize (very loosely organize) the Denver Photowalk Meetup group. We’re a group of Front Range photographers who get together to socialize and photograph. In 2010 I want to take the group beyond just meeting; I’d really like to foster a group of enthusiastic photographers and help them grow artistically.
   

3. Revisit the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado again. I spent 3 days photographing the dunes in 2009 and created some of my favorite images there. I’d like to go back and try again, perhaps with snow on the Sangre de Cristo mountains this time.
   

4. Have a solo showing at a local Denver gallery. As much work as the community show at gallery nrc was, I’d like to do a solo show (or perhaps a duet would be a nice next step) in 2010.
   

5. Support the local art community. Least you think my goals are wholly self-centered in 2010 – I’d really like to begin collecting the work of local photographers. I purchased an image by Erik Stensland at a show in November of 2009. Now I’d like one by Theodore Stark and Neil Corman. Oh, and some metal art by Tim Herbst @ Moxie – neat stuff.
   
   Finally, I’d like to do some stuff that is a little more cerebral (or, as Mr. Bentham mentions, notice the flowers) at least in terms of my photography. I’d like to:
   

6. Slow down – remember that this is supposed to be fun and creative, and not take it all too seriously.
   

7. Avoid the ruts that come with photographing every day – but also avoid the temptation to take the easy picture (another tree and sky image, I know, I know) and grow.

No one is saying that I need to accomplish all this in 2010 – I just need to stretch myself and my work. It’s good to have goals.

So what are your goals for 2010?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Motivation and tagged with Goals, Motivation, persistence, planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.